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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

7.5

Movie

South Korea
Korean
Action, Drama, Thriller
2002
imdb

What it's about

A deaf man and his girlfriend resort to desperate measures in order to fund a kidney transplant for his sister. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.

The take

The first in famed Korean director Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy (after cult films Oldboy and Lady Vengeance), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance follows a Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), a deaf-mute man who resorts to crime when his ailing sister is in need of a kidney transplant. He decides to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy man named Park Dong-jin (Parasite's Song Kang-ho) for ransom, but he underestimates how, like him, Dong-jin will stop at nothing to save a loved one. Thanks to its rich characterization, dazzling editing, and fearless experimentation, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance makes for a thrilling (if violent) watch, one that will hit you hard and leave your mouth agape by the end. Here, you'll see traces of the head-turning twists that will come to define Park's stunning filmography, which apart from Oldboy includes the much-celebrated The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave.

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